For a number of year, our church youth group would go tobogganing at the Chalet in Strongsville, OH. We'd rent the place out and make a morning of it. Even if there wasn't snow on the ground, the chutes had their own ice so you could still soar down.
It was more than just sledding. There were competitions to see who could get to the bottom first, who could make the most rides in the time we had, and who could go the farthest. The latter used to be the most fun as we'd pack the four biggest people we could find and see how far past the end of the chute we could make it. Because you see, the chutes had brake pads as the bottom meant to keep you from going off the chute if possible. Well if you paid attention in Physics class, you'll recall that Force=mass*acceleration or F=ma. And you'll also recall that you had to calculate a bunch of different forces depending on what you were solving for. One of them was friction. And those rubber pads caused a lot of friction. So in order to overcome that friction, a bigger mass meant a bigger force, meant a better chance of overcoming that pesky friction. Our theory worked many times over and we managed to go well off the chutes. In the later years, we seemed to not be able to that anymore. Probably because the Chalet saw it as a liability issue and installed brake pads with a way better friction factor...darn.
I like this photo a lot for a number of reasons. 1) It is a high quality action shot. 2) It portrays in a single frame what that day usually meant to those who went. 3) It's hilarious. 4) Asher (the guy in front of me) and I decided it would be funny to scream like little children in mortal danger, hence our gaping mouths.
Due to timing and a number of other reasons, we haven't done this in awhile. But this photo will always serve as a reminder of those chilly, but fun days.
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